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News

Iowa State's Catt Center to host Iowa launch of new national voter
education/awareness campaign by national League of Women Voters

Iowa State's Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, along
with the national president of the League of Women Voters Kay Maxwell and
Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver, will host the Iowa launch of a
pre-election day voter education and public awareness campaign at a 1:30
p.m. press conference, Wednesday, Sept. 8, in Room 302, Catt Hall. The
public is invited. Catt Center initiatives to educate and engage young
voters will also be discussed. Cards provided by the League of Women Voters
titled "5 Things You Need to Know on Election Day" will also be distributed.

New book by Iowa State journalism professor examines how to bridge the
technological "Interpersonal Divide"

In the new book, "Interpersonal Divide: The Search for Community in a
Technological Age," Michael Bugeja, professor and director of the Greenlee
School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State, says modern technology
is driving civilization away from real communities. Bugeja writes that
e-mail and cell phones have created an "interpersonal divide" -- a void that
develops between people when they spend too much time in virtual, rather
than real, communities. He notes communications problems may be both
business and personal.

Task force will meet Sept. 7

The Task Force on Assuring Successful VEISHEA and Other Student/Community
Celebrations will meet Tuesday, Sept. 7, from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Great Hall,
Memorial Union. A significant portion of the meeting will be devoted to the
findings of Work Group 1. That group has been charged with determining the
events of the April 18 disturbance in Campustown.
Meeting
agenda.

Iowa State University psychology professor earns Young Investigator
Award

Kenneth Malmberg, assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State
University, has received the Young Investigator Award from the American
Psychological Association for his paper "The Effect of Normative Context
Variability on Recognition Memory." The paper was co-written by Mark
Steyvers, assistant professor of cognitive science at the University of
California, Irvine.

Iowa State University names chair of naval science department

Ecologist and author David Orr will speak at ISU Sept. 10

A noted ecologist and author will present Iowa State University's P. H.
Elwood Lecture in Landscape Architecture on Friday, Sept. 10. David Orr's
lecture. "Patriotism, Politics and the Environment in an Age of Terror,"
will focus on the need for a coherent environmental agenda. Orr is the Paul
Sears Distinguished Professor and chair of the environmental studies program
at Oberlin College. The lecture at 7 p.m. in the Kocimski Auditorium,
College of Design is free and open to the public.

ISU professor receives botanical society's highest honor

ISU strategic plan draft unveiled

Iowa State aspires to be one of the world's leading universities in
educating students and putting science and technology to work. The first
step is a draft of what will become ISU's next strategic plan. Although
still a work-in-progress, the university community is invited to review the
strategic plan draft at
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~newplan. Comments may be
submitted to
strategicplan@iastate.edu or at a Sept. 10 open forum at the
Memorial Union Gallery from 9 to 10 a.m.

Women's basketball team ranks third academically

The Iowa State women's basketball team ranked third nationally among
Division I schools, with a 3.48 team grade point average in 2003-04. The
Cyclones had five players on the academic all-Big 12 team and 10
student-athletes on the Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll for the spring
semester.

Demoliton of the auditorium at the northwest corner of LeBaron Hall on the
Iowa State campus was completed last month. A new 340-seat auditorium for
the hall is expected to be completed in August 2005.

On the election

Hamm

"Judging from their behavior, both Republican and Democrat strategists
think that, once again, absentee voting, especially from abroad, is
bound to play a key role in the 2004 presidential election, as it did in
2000," said ISU political scientist Patricia Hamm. "The vote of approximately
7 million American expatriates has
become one of the most coveted, which is why Republicans and Democrats alike,
including the Kerry and the Bush sisters, and nephew George P. Bush,
are busy courting them in places like Mexico City, where about 700,000
Americans live."

Baum

"The challenge for George W. Bush and the Republican Party is to
convince voters that their emphasis on faith is not meant to divide or
exclude people," says ISU associate professor of philosophy and
religious studies Robert Baum, "or to remove the separation of church
and state
that has guided this country since the time of Jefferson."

Dimitrova

"The Internet has become vital to the 2004 campaign giving both
parties access to information and ideas not provided by the big
national media," says ISU political scientist Daniela Dimitrova. "For
instance, the Internet is an important source of information on the
Iraq War. Americans holding negative views toward the war have been
particularly motivated to go online and seek alternative views. Blog
sites such as 'Where is Raed' is a good example."

"This is a crucial moment for the Democratic Party as it tries to
re-gain its reputation on defense and domestic security and, in a
sense, recapture the American flag from the Republicans," says ISU
political scientist Steffen Schmidt. "Both defense and security are
top priority issues on American's minds."

"States like Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio
are crucial to the selection of the next president," says ISU
political scientist James McCormick. "As the Midwest
goes, so goes the presidency."

"Evangelical voter turnout will be a big question for the GOP
in the 2004 election," says ISU political scientist Kim Conger. "The
party that turns out its base will be in the best position to
capitalize on the swing voters they can attract."

"Since Richard Nixon in 1960, it has been customary for nomination
accepters in both parties to include in their speeches 'personal
vision statements' of the American dream," says ISU political
scientist Ray Dearin. "Republicans have stressed the pioneer,
individual liberty, and 'opportunity society'; Democrats have leaned
toward the immigrant, 'huddled masses,' and communitarian
version. Expect this trend to continue in New York."

"The Bush/Cheney campaign is doing more than it did four years ago to
try to win the women's vote," says ISU political scientist Dianne
Bystrom. "This includes a greater reliance on the president's wife to
campaign. For example, she is featured in an ad on the Bush campaign's
Web site devoted to women, talking about the administration's record
on education."

ISU in the news

Nader gets spot on Iowa's ballot

Quad-City Times

Independent presidential hopeful Ralph Nader and his running mate, Peter
Miguel Camejo, will be on the Nov. 2 Iowa election ballot. ISU's own "Dr.
Politics," University Professor Steffen Schmidt, says Nader is less likely
to get Iowa support this time. And, Schmidt predicts, the types of voters
who support Nader will have little effect on the neck-and-neck battle
between Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry and President Bush.

Investing in farmland

Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil

Investors, partnerships and family trusts own an increasing amount of
Iowa farmland, says Professor Mike Duffy, Extension economist and author of
a study that examines farm ownership over the past two decades. An aging
population and low stock market returns are just two reasons for significant
change in the way land is being bought, sold and managed in Iowa.

13 ways to live on less

MSN Money

Every dollar you spend has consequences elsewhere in your life. Choose a
no-fee credit card with a rewards program and review insurance deductibles
annually or semi-annually to save, says Mark Oleson, director of the
Financial Counseling Clinic at Iowa State.